Small Business Internet Blog

8 Tips for Targeted, Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

Kelly Thomas Mango

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

It has been said by some that email marketing is dead—gone the way of the dinosaur. Shiny, new marketing techniques like social media marketing, content marketing, and paid online advertising have taken over. Is it true? Well, sort of.

The good news is that email marketing is alive and well. However, it should be one of many tools in your marketing toolkit, along with the other important methods like those mentioned above.

Need more proof? Here are some statistics about email marketing that you might find interesting:

In 2014, email marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the U.S. (Source: eMarketer)

59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue. (BtoB Magazine)

Small to medium-sized businesses, those with 50 employees or less, receive an open rate of around 22% for email campaigns (click rate is around 2-3%). (Source: MailChimp)

56% of marketers surveyed identified email as being the “digital workhorse”—the single most effective marketing vehicle for retention, acquisition, conversion, and building awareness—several points ahead of the second-most-effective tactic (social media marketing). (Source: GIGAOM Research / Extole)

8 Tips for Awesome Email Campaigns

Now that we’ve taken a look at some compelling stats on the effectiveness of email campaigns, check out these tips to fine tune your campaigns and get the most out of all the hard work you put into your emails:

First Things First: Start with a Great Headline. In reality, you can have the best email campaign on the planet, but it won’t matter a bit if you can’t get your intended target(s) to open your amazing masterpiece. Make a great first impression by crafting an email subject line that is short, to-the-point, and captures the essence of the email in around 50 characters. For more great tips on writing subject lines for your emails, check out this post by Olivia Allen of HubSpot.

Keep It Personal. If possible, address your reader by name. Many email marketing software programs, like Constant Contact, allow you to automatically include recipient names in your email greetings and other areas of the email. Keep it to a minimum, though, or you could creep out your audience.

Stick to the Point. Unless you don’t have email (And who doesn’t?), you already know how one can be inundated with emails on a daily basis. Keep your copy short and to the point to give it a good shot at actually getting read all the way through.

Make It Relevant. Segment your subscribers so that you can send the right information to the right people. There is nothing more worthy of an instant “delete,” or worse, the dreaded UNSUBSCRIBE, than getting an ad for a female bone density product when you are a 20- something male. By tailoring your message to a specific audience and segmenting that audience within your subscriber list, you greatly increase your chances of leading readers further into your sales funnel.

Include Unmistakable Calls-To-Action. When putting together your campaign, ask yourself the following questions: What is the point of this email? What do I want readers to do after reading this? Do I have links and buttons throughout my copy that will guide those reading it in the right direction, including a CTA towards the beginning of the email? The goal here is to not make readers work hard—because in many cases they won’t. Make it easy for them to take the next step.

Check and Re-Check Before Sending. After you have crafted your pithy, CTA-filled, personalized email campaign, send yourself and an unsuspecting friend or colleague a test email. Double-check the subject line and preview text for possible errors. View your email on your desktop and on a mobile device to be sure everything looks good. Click on all of the links and buttons to be sure they are going to the right places. Have your unsuspecting friend do the same with his or her fresh set of eyes. It is amazing what we can overlook when we stare at a project for too long, so it is always nice to have a second opinion.

Perform A/B Testing. To maximize effectiveness and reach, consider split testing using two different subject lines to see which one resonates more with your audience. Most email services allow you to do this easily.

Time Delivery for Best Open Rates. According to research done by HubSpot, Saturday delivery generally gets the best click-through rate at 9%, while Sunday follows closely behind with a CTR of just under 9%. Avoid sending email campaigns at the beginning of the week unless they are time-sensitive, as they fare the worst.

So there you have it. Eight tips to help you get the most out of your email marketing campaigns. Maybe you are new to email marketing or don’t have the time to utilize this valuable marketing opportunity. No worries, we can help. Contact us today to learn how we can help you more effectively reach your target audience and grow your business with our email marketing and other internet marketing strategies.